This wasn't necessarily for Superman month, but Superman month did inspire
me to getting around to writing this now, instead of say. in November,
during Robin month.

Ice-cream Goodbyes
**

Peaches' chubby little legs swung back and forth as she sat on Superman's
lap. "How much longer?" the girl asked impatiently.

"About an hour," Superman explained patiently. "Maybe sooner if Aquaman
gets here sooner." He bounced her once, then went back to the numbing
experience of watching the monitors. He'd been hoping for almost seven
hours to see something-perhaps the Man in Black who had invaded the Titans
headquarters, or perhaps a sign of Nightwing's wayward son. All of the
monitors continued to show nothing.

Kal El couldn't help himself. One hand pulled the girl a little closer to
him, and his lips pressed to her freshly washed hair. Kon had made sure she
was extra-clean for the day. "We can get some chocolate."

Thoughtfully, the girl bit her lip. "But it wont be the same. Without Jordy
buying it. He pays with a slidy card. Robin says he's bad with money." She
sighed. "Do they have money in heaven?"

The Man of Steel paused before responding. "I don't know."

"If they do, my mommy'll make him put his money in a piggy bank." A fleshy
fist rubbed at the girl's nose. "I had a purple piggy bank. Then I broke it
and. and it turned all to dust. And the pennies got all bent together." The
child swallowed a sob. "I had lots of pennies before mommy went to heaven."

"We can get you another piggy bank. Maybe we can start again?" What did one
say to a child in her position? Clark could only guess.

"Just break the piggy bank."

Clark's hand stroked the child's fine blonde hair. "We'll try a piggy bank
later. After you have some control over your powers."

"I didn't break stuff when mommy was here. Now I'm gunna make a mess with
chocolate cause Jordy's not here. He puts it in my mouth so I don't make a
mess cause then Superboy gets all mad when I get my costume dirty and he
gets mad when I get sugar too. So no nothing because everybody's gone."

Nodding his understanding, Clark conceived a plan. "Well, I have something
we can try. We'll make smores."

The girl opened her mouth to protest, then swallowed. "What's that?"

"It's something I'm very good at. Graham crackers. marshmallows. chocolate.
Then I heat 'em up. Like this." A small red beam shot out of Superman's
eyes and into his hand.

Peaches clapped. "I like it when you do that. I want to make them too."

"Lets wait till you learn how to handle THESE powers. before you start
getting new ones."

"Jordy says." the girl sighed. "Nevermind. I wanna go now." Her little lip
trembled. "Mr. Aquaman should come so we can go, cause they'll remember
Jordy without us." Her fist rubbed at her nose again fitfully.

He could see her getting ready to wipe her nose on the clean blue sleeve of
her costume, and grabbed a tissue off the desk, holding it to her face.
"Blow," he instructed. "We can remember Jordy without being there. A wake
is just a time for everyone to get together and do it at the same time."

The girl blew gently, but Clark could feel the force behind the release.
Only the aura around his body that kept his costume from being torn to
shreds kept the tissue from being obliterated. "Wanna see Robin and the
baby. The baby waves to me."

Superman hated finding out about new developing powers this way. "Peaches.
can you see through walls?"

"Just doors and stuff. And people. Like when Kon was kissing the landlady.
Jordy said I'm not allowed to listen through doors. So I gotta watch, at
least. Right?"

"What do you think Jordy would say to that?" Superman asked the six year
old.

Peaches thought about it intensely for a moment. "He'd say no peeking
either. You're not gonna tell Superboy I can see through stuff, huh? Cause
then I wont know where he hides the cookiejar--" the girl sighed. "Jordy
says no cookies before dinner anyways." She turned slightly and put her
head on Superman's shoulder. "It stinks. They're all far away and up there
somewhere. And I can go in space, and I can fly around, but I can't get to
heaven."

Squeezing tightly, the Man of Steel rubbed the girl's back, then smoothed
out her tiny red cape, pressing the wrinkles out of her little yellow S
shield. The girl was invulnerable, but she apparently had no aura to
protect her clothing. It was something that saved Clark from looking like
he had a cape bunched up his suit all day when he finally did get out of
his clothes and out flying. "No. We can fly as high as we want, but we
can't fly to heaven."

"We should at least be able to visit," the child reasoned. "Then Robin
wouldn't miss Old Batman, and she wouldn't miss Jordy, and I wouldn't miss
him and I wouldn't miss mommy. And if you and Kon go there, then I wouldn't
miss you too." Tears leaked out of her eyes and stained his shoulder. "If
heaven's a place, we should be able to go there."

"We miss them because we love them," he explained to the girl. "And the
more we miss them, the happier we'll be, when we finally get to see them
again. When we're in heaven too."

/ 'Everybody dies,' Jordy would say. 'Sometimes they come back. Sometimes
they don't. Either way, they're some place better than here.'/ He just
hoped Jordy was catching up with his mom. The boy deserved that much at
least.

"You know, when he was a little boy. no bigger than you, even. he liked ice-
cream. And every time I saw him, I had to take him for ice-cream." Those
had been happier days; before Jen's death, and before Jordy had taken the
world upon his own shoulders. It was something he recognized, Clark knew he
had the tendency to do that himself.

"You both have a sweet tooth. One time. before my mom went to heaven. I
took him to my parents' house for homemade ice-cream. And this was when he
still had a little power of his own, before his. accident." Actually, his
power had been stolen from him. Fortunately, it had happened when he was
too little to remember, or the kid would have had more baggage on his
already full plate. "My mother had it hardening in a big metal pail. It
was. about this big." He gestured with his hand, indicating that it was no
bigger than a large bucket. "And he couldn't wait. So a little green hand
of energy grabbed hold of the lid and pulled it off. and he climbed right
in with the ice-cream. It looked like he took a bath in it."

Peaches choked on a laugh.

"He wasn't quite three. So he was just this little ball of baby, and he
just went right in with the chocolate ice-cream. My mom didn't clean him up
for half an hour. She just let him lick it right off of himself." Even
Clark had to struggle to suppress the smile. "We'll get some chocolate ice-
cream in Gotham. That's how we'll remember him. That will be our way."

The girl nodded. "I like ice-cream. Chocolate ice-cream." Another waterfall
erupted from her eyes. "Miss him."

"I know. I miss him too. He always tried to be the best for everyone." He
rubbed her back. "We will eat ice-cream, and my mom can make him ice-cream
in heaven. and we'll all have ice-cream today." Clark sighed. "It hurts,"
he said, more to himself than her, "because we miss him. And we miss him.
because we love him."

The girl sniffed, and then dried her tears. Sitting up a little, she looked
into his eyes. She searched them for a moment, then wrapped her arms around
his neck.

She squeezed for all the life of her, and Clark actually felt his air way
constricting. He put his hands on her arms, and she understood by the
gesture that she had to loosen up a little. "The more it hurts. the more we
loved them."

"Still sucks," the girl declared tearfully, drying her eyes on his neck.